Moving from Schwab managed to Vanguard

[bilmar]

I have about $500K in Schwab managed account that I want to put in Vanguard index funds.
I am retired and will have a zero income year so this is the best time to do this Capital Gains wise

 My plan is to first tell Schwab "I am not happy " and want my last quarter's fees refunded - using their satisfaction warranty.

Then I am not sure what is best:

 Sell everything and get cash to Vanguard?
 Transfer stocks to Vanguard and sell there?
 Something else?

Any recommendations.
Thanks
Bill

[TheAnonOne]

I have about $500K in Schwab managed account that I want to put in Vanguard index funds.
I am retired and will have a zero income year so this is the best time to do this Capital Gains wise

 My plan is to first tell Schwab "I am not happy " and want my last quarter's fees refunded - using their satisfaction warranty.

Then I am not sure what is best:

 Sell everything and get cash to Vanguard?
 Transfer stocks to Vanguard and sell there?
 Something else?

Any recommendations.
Thanks
Bill

Avoiding taxes is probably your biggest concern. You may need to sell a smaller portion yearly and transfer those funds. However, I am not an expert at the whole large money tax thing.

[GGNoob]

Just tossing this out there as an option...

Schwab has the lowest cost ETFs available. So if you wanted to, you could just manage the account yourself and create your own portfolio at Schwab, without doing the transfer. https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/investment/etfs/schwab_etfs/market_cap_index_etfs

[forummm]

I imagine your advisor also put you in high-cost funds in addition to charging you for the privilege of him selecting those high-cost fund. If so you will definitely want to sell them. How much capital gain do you have?

[NorCal]

Look at the actual fees you're paying and compare them to Vangard.  Also look at the tax impact of selling.

I actually have a preference for Schwab, and find their funds are priced comparably to Vanguard.  They may not have the Vanguard "cult" following, but that doesn't make them more expensive (depending on what you're actually invested in).

[bilmar]

I have Schwab 'Manager portfolios' service which costs about 0.6% with a YTD of 1.5%   yuk!

The  portfolio is a mix of Mutuals and ETF's - about 50 or so but with such lousy performance I want to do better and my Vanguard simple S&P index fund got me 3.1% YTD - double that of the fancy managed Schwab stuff.

I am leaning towards just converting to  'unmanaged' and then selling off at a pace I like and moving the funds to Vanguard.
I have zero income this year other than a Roth conversion I made deliberately to create enough income to qualify for Obamacare so I think this is the best year for me to realize Capital gains.

Bill

[Cwadda]

Is it possible to do a trustee-to-trustee transfer and not pay taxes? Or does that only work in tax-sheltered accounts?

[MDM]

Is it possible to do a trustee-to-trustee transfer and not pay taxes?

Yes, we have done so.